Ok …. You’ve run an Assessment and taken the output to plan a Proof of Concept (POC) and production migration. You’ve built the POC and are planning to scale it up and out to support the migration to production, and Transformation of the enterprise.
Let’s pause a moment and remember why we are here. With all this fantastic technology coming online, AI, IOT, Cloud, Advanced Analytics, it is tempting to become evangelists for this convergence of the latest technologies. Nothing wrong with that BUT, we are not here to sell shiny toys!
Whether we are the CIO or whether we are vendors to the IT organization, we are here to produce business outcomes.
Expertise, credibility, commitment
There’s a tremendous amount of hype around HANA cloud migrations. There is a lot of money, hundreds of billions of dollars in fact, that is going to be spent over the next 5-10 years on cloud migrations and thousands of consulting companies are looking to get a piece of that. Let’s be frank, there is a frantic effort in these companies to differentiate themselves to try to win this business, and often there is not much differentiation to be had.
Yes, there are tools that help migration, yes, there are methodologies, yes there is this and there is that and no shortage of promises that this time it will be different if you only select MY company.
But some things never change. True differentiation is not just a shiny new product, it’s also expertise, credibility, commitment, communication, integrity and a history of successful results …. these things have been important since the beginning of time and will never stop being important.
Look for a company that gives you confidence and has the experience to deliver the expertise, and that you can count on as a true partner. If you have gone through a successful Assessment, and a successful POC, then you already have a candidate company for your Transformation. Especially having done a POC, you’ve had the opportunity to work closely with that vendor and you should be aware of their capabilities for the final stage.
A name brand has its place, but don’t be seduced by brand-name companies with sky high costs. Do your due diligence, learn what you can, compare the proposals, get second opinions, and make sure you are getting the right people.
Rewards of transformation waiting
A lot of this may seem obvious, yet how often is the obvious ignored with a headlong rush into projects that end up in disaster? There are reasons that these basic, common-sense suggestions are obvious. Leading your team and your company through this requires confidence, vision and no small amount of courage.
Stand your ground, don’t overpay and don’t lowball. If you pay too much, you will deplete your budget and the relationship with your vendor will be tense as you try to get more work before your budget crashes and fingers start to point.
If you pay too little by beating down the price in a competitive bidding war, then the quality of the end result will suffer, your risk factors will escalate, and you might join the list of companies with expensive, failed implementations. It’s only cheaper if you do it one time, and do it well.
Many companies want a large branded company to be their systems integrator for many reasons. While theoretically they have the resources to deliver the project, these large integrators often come to Genesis10 and companies like us to actually staff the project. The resources are likely to be presented as employees of the Big Brand, with the corresponding high prices.
If you must use a branded integrator, a better model is to use them for planning, management, and/or PMO support and use a company like Genesis10 for the analysts, architects, developers, testers and others to do the hands-on work. There are significant savings to be realized with this approach.
There is a middle path through all this and the rewards of a successful Transformation are waiting.
And once you’ve selected your vendors, consider the Genesis10 SAP methodology we call APT ….. Assess, Prove and Transform.
Related:
The CIO Dilemma Part One: Conduct an Assessment
The CIO Dilemma Part Two: Build a Proof of Concept?
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